2011 Liege-Bastone-Liege – Gilbert Hat Trick

If last week was incredible, what is this weekend? Philippe Gilbert has won again, sweeping the Ardenees week with each win getting bigger, as Liege is one of the 5 monuments of cycling and the oldest Pro-Tour race – “La Doyenne.”

Gilbert attacked with the two Schlecks on the Côte de la Redoute (2.1 km, avg. 8.4%) and bridged the gap the the breakaway group joining Greg Van Avermaet. The four held around a 30 second advantage for about 4km and then the lead swelled to nearly a minute with the race looking like it was over, with just the podium to be sorted. The peloton looked to get together and be motivated with the lead coming crashing down to 20 seconds by the Côte de la Saint Nicolas but Frank held onto a huge attack by Gilbert while both Andy and Van Avermaet were dropped.

With just Gilbert and Frank heading to the finish, Andy chased hard and caught the two and lead the trio into the final km up the finish to Ans. However, even with Andy trying his best to box in Gilbert and set his brother up for the sprint, the two Schlecks, really, are like balls of yarn to a tiger in a sprint against Gilbert. As expected, Philippe didn’t even disguise his surge and within the last 500m, blew the brothers away to win Liege.